


Sleep

by Swim2520



Series: 2020 Ace/Nancy Fall Drabblefest [11]
Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: 2020 Ace/Nancy Fall Drabblefest, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Nancy gets poisoned AGAIN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27003130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swim2520/pseuds/Swim2520
Summary: Nancy ends up in the crosshairs of another poisoner and ends up in the hospital. Ace stays with her.
Relationships: Ace/Nancy Drew
Series: 2020 Ace/Nancy Fall Drabblefest [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944706
Comments: 4
Kudos: 58





	Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Ace watches Nancy as she falls asleep. 
> 
> With Nancy's propensity for finding mysteries, I would totally not be surprised if this happens. 
> 
> Also sorry for not posting this sooner. Some stories take longer to write than others, no matter the length. I have to wait until the words come to me, and some days, they just don't come. Anyway, I want to thank you for all the kudos and comments that you have left on my previous stories. I know that I say this all the time, but I cannot use sufficient words to describe how wonderful it feels to know that people enjoy the stories that I pour my heart and soul into.

Ace sighed and readjusted his position in the uncomfortable chairs that hospitals seemed to be so fond of. He rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Hospitals were, unfortunately, becoming quite familiar to him. 

Horseshoe Bay had a lot of secrets-secrets that people were willing to kill for. And because of her propensity for finding mysteries and relentless search for the truth, Nancy was often a target for those people. This time, they got a little too close for comfort. 

They had actually _not_ been on the trail of a poisoner. Nancy had stumbled into a case involving money laundering that went back decades (how she continually stumbled into mysteries was a mystery in of itself) and, apparently, gotten too close to blowing the whole thing open. In fact, Nancy had been about to refer the case to Lisbeth when they discovered that she had been poisoned. Killing the person investigating the case would only make them look more guilty, but most of the time it seemed to be an in-the-moment decision to make the problem go away. Luckily, it failed and the perpetrators were now also facing attempted murder. 

Thankfully, Nancy was going to be fine. She was being kept in the hospital under observation for the next few days, which Ace knew she would absolutely hate. 

“Hey,” a soft voice jerked Ace out of his thoughts. 

“Hey,” he replied. “How are you feeling?”

Nancy shifted in bed and scratched at her arm right below the IV in the crook of her elbow. “Sore. And tired. I think.”

“Well, getting poisoned takes a lot of you, I imagine. Especially if you start making a habit of it,” Ace replied, leaning over the railing. Nancy looked a bit better than she had when she was brought into the hospital. She was still paler than usual and still sounded like she was out of breath at times. 

“Like I _asked_ to be poisoned.”

“You kind of did the first time.” His heart had never beat as fast as when Nancy had offered herself up as a victim. Well...that had been until she got poisoned a second time. 

“I didn’t expect to be poisoned. I thought I’d catch them before that,” Nancy groaned, somehow managing to make an argument in her vulnerable state. It wasn’t a very good argument, but Nancy was still making one nonetheless. 

“And this time?”

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to get poisoned again. Who knew that money launderers could track down poison?”

“Tell that to your father. He probably has a new grey hair because of this.”

“Which one?” Nancy asked. 

Ace shrugged. “Probably both.”

He knew for a fact that Ryan had been slightly hysterical when he heard that Nancy had been admitted to the hospital. Slightly more so than Carson who was still worried about his daughter, but used to the danger that her cases brought more often than not. 

Before either could say anything else, Nancy yawned and her eyes fluttered closed for a moment before she opened them again. Ace brushed a lock of red hair out of her face and said, “You should probably get some sleep. I hear that getting poisoned takes a lot out of you.”

“I want to go home, Ace,” Nancy whined, fighting the urge to sleep with all the energy that she had left, which definitely wasn’t much. 

“I know you do, Nancy. I know. But you have to stay here. The doctors want to make sure that there are no adverse effects before they release you.”

“They let me go last time.”

“Last time, you had the antidote administered on scene and were cleared by the EMTs. This time, you had it administered here and were without oxygen for a longer period of time.”

Nancy groaned and rubbed her eyes. “I know that. I just wish that I didn’t have to stay _here._ I hate hospitals.”

Ace remembered briefly that Nancy had once told him that her mom spent a significant amount of time in the early months of her cancer at the hospital, receiving chemo. It was only after it was clear that she wasn’t responding to the treatment the way that the doctors had hoped that Kate was moved home to spend whatever time she had left with her family. Staying in the hospital probably reminded Nancy of that time. 

“Babe...”

“Ace, please. I want to go home.”

He felt his heart break a little at Nancy’s whine. She was exhausted, in pain, still disoriented from the poison, and in place that brought up only bad memories for her. All that combined to make Nancy feel pretty miserable. 

“Alright, can you move over some?” Ace asked, kicking off his shoes. 

Nancy gave him a look as she shifted over in the bed. He pulled down the railing for her bed and climbed in, being careful not to dislodge any of the wires Nancy was attached to. Ace wrapped his arms around Nancy, pulling her close. He was pleased to feel that some of the tension was released from her body. 

“Is this better?”

“Yeah,” Nancy admitted. She snuggled into Ace’s neck. He liked to imagine that Nancy was more relaxed now than she had been earlier. Sharing a bed was probably frowned upon in the hospital, but Ace was willing to bet that they would overlook it if it calmed Nancy.

“Get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake up,” he promised. 

Nancy shifted again to rest her head on Ace’s chest. He ran one of his hands through her hair while the other ran up and down her back to try and lure her to sleep. 

It took a few minutes for Ace to calm Nancy enough to where she felt comfortable enough sleeping. Not much longer after that, Nancy’s eyes were fluttering again and the spaces between her eyes opening and closing got longer and longer. She fell asleep soon after that. 

Despite the circumstances that landed them in their current position, Ace was happy that it ended with the girl of his dreams in his arms, feeling safe enough around him to fall asleep and trust him to protect her while she was vulnerable. 

“I love you, Nancy,” he whispered, drawing her even closer to his arms and kissing the top of her head. With that said, he felt himself relaxing and falling asleep himself. 


End file.
